Techniques Compared
No single estimation technique fits every situation. Planning poker suits careful story-by-story estimation, while affinity methods handle large backlogs quickly. Knowing the trade-offs lets a scrum team pick the fastest method that still produces trustworthy estimates.
Planning poker has each person estimate privately and then reveal at once, followed by discussion of any spread. It is the most thorough technique because it forces independent judgment and surfaces disagreement one story at a time.
The trade-off is pace. Estimating a large backlog card by card takes time, so planning poker is best for the stories a team is actually about to work on.
Affinity estimation asks the team to group many items by relative size, often by physically or digitally sorting them into buckets. Dozens of stories can be sized in the time planning poker would spend on a handful.
It sacrifices some precision for speed, which makes it ideal for an initial pass over a big backlog before the top items get more careful treatment.
T-shirt sizing and dot voting are fast, low-ceremony options for high-level triage or quick prioritization. They keep discussion short when granularity is not the goal.
A practical approach layers the techniques: affinity or sizing for the whole backlog, then planning poker for the stories entering a sprint. Match the method to the decision you are trying to make.
Planning poker tends to produce the most considered estimates because of its independent voting and discussion, but accuracy also depends on how clear the stories are.
A technique where the team quickly groups many backlog items by relative size, trading precision for the ability to size a large backlog fast.
Yes, and most mature teams do. A fast method for the whole backlog plus planning poker for near-term stories is a common and effective combination.